Another Behind The Scenes View!

A couple of weeks ago Maria took us behind the scenes of her life and opened the doors for us to take a look at what the behind the scenes of real life look like versus what we show others. At the time she wrote the blog it really hit home because “The Kitchen Table” was experiencing its own brand of a behind the scenes scenario. And today I would like to look at the “behind the scenes” hard work it takes to make things happen.

I love the live theater, but until I started homeschooling and we got to attend the dress rehearsals of the Philadelphia Ballet and the Philadelphia Opera, I never thought about what it took for a live performance to be great. The dress rehearsals are the final rehearsals before the show opens to the public, so what we got to see was very polished and basically ready for opening night, but what it all must have looked like just 6 months before? When you pay that $100 plus to go to a Broadway show you really don’t care what it took, you just want it to be good and get your money’s worth. And that is with most things in life. When we walk into our favorite retail store we could care less that employees stay after the store is closed to clean and stock merchandise, or that a team came in at 5am to redo the floor design so that it is done when the store opens at 10am. Unless you have ever worked in the behind the scenes capacity of retail, there really is no reason for you to think about it. In fact no one wants you to think about it. As the consumer your experience is to be one that entices you to spend money and to come back to continue to spend more money. You are not to think about what it takes to make it all happen, you are just there to enjoy and take it all in.

This is also true to all aspects of life. Everything has a behind the scenes. Take your church for instances. When I walk into my church home everything is always pristine! It is warm in the winter, it is cool in the summer, it is always clean, smells good, and looks good. The lights work, the sound system works, the projection side of things works and you see the words to the songs and can read the Bible versus being read if you don’t have a Bible. The praise and worship team is in harmony, the band members play as if you had paid money to hear them. My Pastor is prepared for his teachings and I mean life is good. But what I didn’t see was the praise and worship team have 3 rehearsals that week. I wasn’t there when the building maintenance crew cleaned the building (including the bathrooms) from top to bottom. I didn’t witness all the lovely wood and marble being shined. Who knew that the electrician had to be called in midweek because of some type of electrical problem? I don’t have a clue as to how long my Pastor agonized and prayed over the latest series he is teaching. All I know is that when I walk through the doors there are several people always there to greet me and love on me. I know that if it is freezing cold outside, it is going to be nice and warm when I get inside. Whatever it took during the week for Sunday service to be what it is, is really not my concern because it is not my “behind the scenes,” it is already supposed to be prepared for me.

We are now coming to the end of January and all of the sisters at “The Kitchen Table” have posted a blog. Oh, don’t worry you will have guest writers every month, bringing something new to feed off, but there is our core group of women who will be writing to you every month and that is where the friendships will be built. I know for a fact that this month has been a great success. And when I say, “Success” I am talking about God’s realm of success. Women have been blessed all over the world from our blog. Just to name a few places (via technology) we have visited, Vietnam, Venezuela, Port of Spain, Norway, UK, Denmark, Dubai, Canada, Trinidad, Mexico and many other lands. Women have written to us by leaving comments on the blog, personal emails, phone calls, postings on our facebook pages, and face-to-face conversations. I love when someone says, “I am really getting fed at the kitchen table.” The feedback has been great!! But the behind the scenes to get the blogs posted 6 days a week takes a lot of work.

Through technology just about everyone who reads our blog only has to click on a link and you are there. But in order for that to happen on our end, it takes so much more than a click. When the Lord first gave me the vision for “The Kitchen Table” it was just an idea in my head and a knowing in my heart. Thus began the meditation and prayer on how to make it all happen. Next was engaging the right sisters to come and sit at the table. After awhile things started to fall into place. Great topics were birthed, anointed and committed women of God began to agree to be part of the vision and ministry, and I had a clear vision as to how to move forward in all of this! Life was great. By December 09 the website was being worked on, the daily blog was to premier on January 1, 2010, the sisters were sending in their bios and blogs when, POW!!! My computer crashed and I lost everything. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING!!! It happened on a Friday morning. I kept praying it would open and boot back up. But by that evening I felt depression and his posse of pity, doom and gloom knocking outside my heart. How could this happen? Saturday, a friend of mine had her husband try to help me over the phone but we still couldn’t get it to reboot. By then I had a good cry about it all. Sunday morning I decided to take my “Big girl pill,” get over it, and do whatever I had to do to make the blog deadline. It is times like these when we really have to remember that though we are surprised and shocked….God is not!

I’m a virtual assistant and I lost most of my work files too, but that really didn’t concern me as much as losing all that I had for “The Kitchen Table.” The blog (God’s work) came first. I had the week of Christmas off and I worked long and hard to get things back and up and running. One day I was on the computer for over 10 hours. But I got the twitter account setup, the facebook fan page setup, and soooo much more accomplished that day. The sisters from the table had to resend me all their stuff. They stood in prayer for me, called and encouraged me, and the Holy Spirit anointed and helped me all the way. I would get on facebook and see how everyone was preparing for the holidays, having a wonderful time, but I was doing what I needed to do in order to get the blog up and running. I even worked on it on Christmas Day, because that is how important it was. I had to read all the blogs over, all the editing had to be redone; pictures had to be uploaded, and so on and so on. I had less than 2 weeks to redo work that I had done in the course of a little over 2 months. It was a frantic behind the scenes, but as all behind the scenes scenarios, no one knew the real cost to giving you this blog but a handful of people and God!

We all have “The behind the scenes” part of our lives. And there are times when it is really hard, but we must not give up. As Paul explains to us, “Faint not in well doing and we will reap the benefits” (see Galatians 6:9) Also it should help us to not be jealous or envious of others and or covet their lives. Reason being, things look so different on the front end of things, but you do not know what it took behind the scenes for them to be where they are today. We don’t know what it took for that good marriage to be. You don’t know that one person became saved before the other and life became a living hell, until God’s timing was made perfect. You didn’t know that your praise and worship leader was abused most of her life and sings to God the way she does because of her deliverance and healing. So many people “behind the scenes lives” are a pile of ashes before God turns them into a thing of beauty that others behold.

There is a “Behind the Scenes” in everyone’s life and so often just when things are going well; the monkey wrench of life comes along. But I want to express to you that when that happens you must stand on what you know. And you need to know what you know before hand. Are you thinking, “What? What is she talking about?” If you are not sure of what you know to be true in God, then it will be impossible to stand in the storms of life. If you know with all your heart that you serve a God who is faithful and will always be there for you no matter what. Then when life is hard and you’re not hearing from God, you will be able to stand on the promise that even if He is not speaking or showing up as you think He should, He is still with you nonetheless. But if you don’t know for sure He is true to His promises then you might faint and give up.

“The Kitchen Table” forged on because we knew God is faithful, it was a test, and anything that is worthwhile in the Kingdom is worth fighting for. So I ask you, “What is your “behind the scenes?” Whatever it is, don’t give up! Push on!! Give birth to that vision God has entrusted you with! Don’t allow the one who seeks to steal and destroy have a victory in your life. If he had been allowed to destroy the vision or steal the dream of “The Kitchen Table” you would not be reading this now. So, I speak from the heart when I tell you to do what you have to do, but don’t give up!!

My prayer and that of the sisters at “The Kitchen Table” is that the Lord continues to use us to encourage as many women as possible to live the best life that they can in Christ Jesus!!

Love & Hugs
Ponnie


Tomorrow we have a guest writer Erika Gonzales who will be starting us off on our February theme of “Love!” We have some good stuff for you in February. God is really going to be showing off, so read as many blogs as you can. The winner of the drawing will also be announced at the end of tomorrow’s blog.